Benjamin Crump, the lawyer for the family of George Floyd, recently appeared on CBS’s Face The Nation with host Margaret Brennan to discuss the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and the flawed qualified immunity doctrine, which shields bad police officers from accountability when they violate citizens’ rights.
“We understand that politics is the art of compromise because we want to make progress. However, on qualified immunity, Margaret, this has to be addressed, because this is the thing that allows bad police officers to engage in reprehensible conduct like we saw with George Floyd and countless — I mean hundreds of Black people being killed — and it shields their behavior,” said Crump.
In addition to eliminating qualified immunity for law enforcement, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act would ban no-knock warrants in drug cases at the federal level and ensure a host of other police reform measures. The legislation was recently passed in the U.S. House of Representatives and heads to the U.S. Senate for a vote.
“We’re not saying that this qualified immunity reform will deny police officers their due process. But what we’re saying [is] it will allow those who have been harmed to have access to court,” said Crump.
Watch the entire Face the Nation discussion with the Floyd family’s lawyer here.